1.What is the most recent update in Android?

The very recent update in Android is the most recent major version, Android 9.0 Pie released on August 6th 2018.

Android 9.0 – Overview:

This Android Pie is the ninth major version of the Android operating system. It was announced and the first developer preview was released on March 7, 2018 by Google. The second preview was released on May 8, 2018. The final beta of Android was released on July 25, 2018 and the final offifcial release was released on August 6, 2018.

Biggest Android 9.0 Features:

1. Indoor navigation with Wi-Fi RTT –

Android P supports IEEE 802.11mc WiFi protcol, known as Wi-Fi Round-Trip-Time (RTT). This allows indoor GPS style tracking of locations. It means you can find your way across short distances within malls and large buildings.

2. Gesture Navigation –

By introducing Gesture navigation, the way you navigate becomes similar to that of navigation in iPhone X.

3. Dashboard –

Google has introduced Dashboard to control how you use your phone. This breaks down phone data usage to show hour you spend time on your device. It displays a pie chart indicating the time spent in each app and your phone that day. It also displays the number of times you unlocked yur phone and the number of notifications you receive per day.

4. App Timer –

This allows you t set time limit of each app and on approaching the limit, a notifiaction pops out cautioning that you have reached your time limit and the app ‘pauses’. It helps to manage your time better and improve productivity.

5. Do Not Disturb –

The redisgned DND mode not only silences the phone calls and notifications, but also block the visual notifications that pop up on your screen. Also, by laying your phone face-down on the table, the Shush mode is enabled that automatically enters the DND mode.

6. Wind Down –

To curb the habit of spending hours on our phone at night before we actually fall asleep, the Wind Down feature is used. This will switch on the Night Light and Do Not Disturb mode at your chosen bedtime. The Android P will fade the screen to grayscale to help you remember to sleep at the selected time.

7. Notch support –

Android P features an edge-to-edge screen support with an option to “Stimulate a display with a cut-out.” This new feature envelopes different types of cut out modes like narrow, tall, and wide to avail different notch dimensions. This can be found by choosing Developer options > Drawing > Simulate a display with a cutout. Finally, choose the cutout size.

8. App Actions –

This feature helps you to navigate your day based on your daily habits such as using headphones to hear your playlist, browsing movie name to book the movie tickets online and so on. This allows you to skip the several steps in the process, by automatically anticipating your next action based on your current action.

9. Slices –

It lets you perform basic application activities outside the app. This is based on analysis of inputs and contexts you do on your apps and show you the best parts of the apps you use most of the time.

10. Lockdown mode –

The “Enter Lockdown” button is the recent extension to the power menu. Once enabled, you need to insert your PIN, password or pattern or any other unclock methods to work again. This also disables the fingerprint unlocking option which is useful in case of any enemy force you or trick you into unlocking your phone.

11. Zoom in text –

This supports the Zoom lens feature that is when you long press a phrase, it will automatically magnify at the pointer. This will help you to read small text, select words precisely and get rid of annoying mistakes of selecting the wrong phrase.

12. Smarter Notification Channels –

Android P helps you to black certain type of notifications from appearing on your phone. The dismissed notifications will now display a red minus sign. Tapping on it will display a message asking if you would like to “Stop notifications” or “Keep showing” them.

13. Improvement in messaging apps –

The provision for developers to make the images viewable in the notification shade for all incoming messages, Smart Reply which allows to reply quickly to messages through the notification shade are the notable enhancements in messaging apps.

14. An easier way to take screenshots and edit them –

Android P has made screenshots handy by adding it to the power menu. This feature liberates us from struggling with the power + volume down buttons.

15. Auto-Rotate Button –

An auto-rotate button appears in the navigation bar when your phone is rotated to an orientation it’s not currently locked to.If your device is locked to portrait mode and you try to rotate it to landscape, a button appears. Tapping this button will lock your phone to landscape until you are using that app or you rotate the phone back to portrait mode and touch the button again.

16. Dark theme –

Android P allows you to manually change from different themes.Under the display advanced settings, you can select whichever theme you prefer. But will apply only to the app drawer and the notification shade.

17. Increased security –

As of now if an app wants to access our camera, mic, contacts and the like it can access it anytime once the permissions are given by us. But Android P blocks the background usage of these allowed access. If any app access our camera or mic from the background, the Android P will block its access and sends a notifcation to the user explictly requesting the access.Similar restrictions have been applied to phone numbers, WiFi location, connection information, etc.

18. Default HTTPS for apps –

To ensure the safety of your data while sending or receiving data from the app’s servers, all the apps built for Android P will communicate data via HTTPs by default.

19. Pair up to 5 Bluetooth devices –

In Android P, you can pair up to a maximum of five devices for media panels, and not for simultaneous playbacks.

20. Alert tone to notify call recordings –

The other feature is that the ability to notify all parties whenever a conversation is being recorded. Once the call recording starts, the system will play a tone at an interval of 15 seconds to alert the other party.

21. Media Panel –

For the first time, the volume slider is now vertical and shifted to the right of the screen. And *drum rolls* the physical volume buttons will only change media volumes by default. The same media panel also features different volume options when connected to more than one device. This separates the phone volume from the volume of connected devices.

22. Support for HEIF image and HDR VP9 video format –

The built-in support for High Dynamic Range (HDR VP9) in the latest Android version 9.0 allows you to create HDR-enabled videos that can be viewed on devices and apps that support it.

23. Autofill in browsers –

The latest version deals with browser by allowing password managers to populate the login credentials into browsers.

24. 157 new emojis –

With the Android P, Google has introduced 157 new emojis including gender inclusive emoji as well as few minor tweaks in emoji designs. The new pack of exciting emojis includes a cold face, hot face, mango, and llama. A new line of redhead emoji is also added in Android P.

25. Ambient Display for Battery Percentage –

Show battery charge percentage on the Ambient Display has now been added to Android P.

26. Adaptive Battery –

Now Android Pie doesn’t wait for an app to be idle and puts an app in standby mode more aggressively. Also, background apps don’t have network access and the limits are applied to all apps. It learns to prioritize battery power by observing apps and services you use the most, thereby helping you get the most out of your battery, and make it last for a longer time.

27. Adaptive Brightness –

Android 9.0 now sports a new mechanism called ‘Adaptive Brightness’ that learns your preferred levels of brightness in different surroundings. It will automatically set the screen brightness levels for you, tracking the user adjustments.

28. ART improvements –

New changes in the OS will improve the Android Runtime (ART), that allows apps to launch faster and consume less memory on your phone with Android Pie.

Available in devices:

As far as now, the Android P beta is available for the following devices:

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

This is Renuga, working as Placement Officer at payilagam. I'm pretty much interested in psychology & astrology and I love pets. What I think in my mind is always a mystery to others that no one can understand me fully. I just enjoy exploring new things and that drove me as a content writer here.